Salesforce (CRM)’s AI Numbers Just Gave Benioff His Swagger Back

Salesforce (CRM)’s AI Numbers Just Gave Benioff His Swagger Back

Fatima Gulzar

Sun, September 6, 2026 at 11:56 PM GMT+3 4 min read

• CRM -1.97%

CNBC reported that Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) reported fiscal second-quarter revenue of $11.35 billion, up 11% year over year and above the $11.32 billion analysts expected. Net income rose to $3.53 billion from $1.89 billion a year earlier, boosted by a $2.6 billion gain on its Anthropic investment.

Shares surged more than 12% on the results and kept climbing the next day after Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei disclosed "Claudeforce," a plug-in bringing Salesforce data into Claude. "This SaaSpocalypse narrative has been such nonsense," Benioff told CNBC's Jim Cramer. "Frontier models depend on CRM. They don't replace it." Agentforce annualized revenue topped $1.5 billion, up 240% year over year. Salesforce announced a $1.6 billion VA contract and a planned $3.6 billion acquisition of Fin.

Bull Case

The quarter's strength was broad-based, not confined to one metric skeptics could dismiss. Net new annual order value growth was the strongest in four years. Seats grew across Agentforce, Sales, Service, and Slack rather than declining as bears predicted; attrition sat near its lowest level ever, and bookings more than doubled quarter over quarter, directly rebutting the claims the "SaaSpocalypse" narrative was built on.

Agentforce is now a large, fast-growing business on its own, not just a talking point. Annualized revenue from the AI agent platform topped $1.5 billion, up 240% year over year. It gives Salesforce a concrete, rapidly scaling product line that validates its AI strategy with real recurring revenue.

The Claude partnership strengthens Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)'s AI offering by giving customers direct access to Anthropic's models within its CRM platform. Incorporating Claude with Salesforce's proprietary customer data could make Agentforce and other AI tools more useful to businesses while giving Salesforce another way to monetize the growing demand for enterprise AI. The partnership also shows Salesforce can work with leading AI model developers rather than relying entirely on its own models.

Bear Case

A meaningful part of this quarter's profit jump came from a one-time investment gain, not core software economics. The $2.6 billion Anthropic gain inflated net income well above what operating performance alone would have produced. It means the headline profit beat overstates how much the underlying business itself improved.

Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) is now funding shareholder returns with debt rather than organic cash flow. It has already paid a price for that. The firm executed a $25 billion accelerated share buyback funded by newly issued debt, part of a $50 billion authorization, and was forced to cut its full-year cash flow growth guidance roughly in half as a direct result. It is a real cost of defending the stock against AI-disruption fears.

Salesforce still needs to prove that Agentforce can sustain its rapid growth beyond this quarter. Agentforce has surpassed $1.5 billion in annual recurring revenue, but Salesforce must continue to drive customer adoption and recurring revenue growth to establish Agentforce as a durable growth engine. If Agentforce growth slows as Salesforce moves beyond early adopters, investors could revive concerns about the company's ability to monetize AI at scale.

Insider Monkey's Hedge Fund Data

Insider Monkey's database shows Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) was held by 99 hedge funds in the second quarter of 2026, down slightly from 101 in the first quarter, with total holdings valued at $6.44 billion, down from $6.87 billion. Among enterprise software peers, ServiceNow was held by 115 funds worth $5.05 billion, up from 108, while Workday was held by 57 funds worth $3.12 billion, down from 63.

Conclusion

Salesforce has boosted its AI story, but the latest quarter does not remove every concern. Agentforce's fast revenue growth and the Claude partnership support the firm's long-term AI strategy. Debt-funded stock buybacks and investment gains complicate its true earnings. Salesforce must now turn its AI momentum into steady organic growth and strong cash flow to earn lasting investor confidence.

While we acknowledge the potential of CRM as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on thebest short-term AI stock.

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